This application claims the benefit of a Japanese Patent Application No.11-283496 filed Oct. 4, 1999, in the Japanese Patent Office, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to three-dimensional object shared processing methods and storage media, and more particularly to a three-dimensional object shared processing method for processing a three-dimensional object which is built on a computer by sharing the three-dimensional object by a plurality of computers which are coupled via a network, and to a computer-readable storage medium which stores a program for causing a computer to process a three-dimensional object by such a three-dimensional object shared processing method.
In this specification, a three-dimensional object refers to an abstract model such as a three-dimensional graphics model. In addition, processing the three-dimensional object refers to an arbitrary operation which can be carried out on a computer with respect to the three-dimensional object, such as moving, rotating, enlarging, reducing, changing view point, clipping, checking interference and annotation. Furthermore, the three-dimensional object shared processing method according to the present invention and the storage medium according to the present invention are applicable to simultaneous design reviews and conferences conducted at remote locations in the fields of design and production, to remote control of robots or the like, to computer games or the like, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional three-dimensional object shared processing method can roughly be categorized into the following three kinds.
According to a first method, a plurality of computers share commands for controlling window events and display events, and a drawn object is shared by the plurality of computers by successively exchanging information. This first method is employed in systems such as xe2x80x9cNetMeetingxe2x80x9d provided by Microsoft Corporation, and xe2x80x9cLiveHelpxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cThe Collaboxe2x80x9d provided by Fujitsu Limited.
According to the first method, all commands controlling display events are exchanged by an Operating System (OS), thereby requiring an extremely larger communication band. For this reason, consideration is normally not given on the use of this first method under environments other than a Local Area Network (LAN). In addition, when this first method is employed in a computer which is installed with a three-dimensional graphics board, the display commands are not only processed by the OS but also by the three-dimensional graphics board. Hence, graphics processed in the computer which is installed with the three-dimensional graphics board cannot be shared by computers which are coupled to this computer via a network. Therefore, the sharing of the graphics object is limited to the computers which process the display events by software of the OS, and it is not possible to smoothly share the graphics object among the computers by high-speed rendering using the three-dimensional graphics board.
According to a second method, the three-dimensional object which is to be shared among the computers is locally stored in memories of the computers which are coupled via a network. Only basic transformation quantities related to moving, rotation and the like of the object are exchanged among the computers. This second method is proposed in a U.S. Pat. No. 5,821,925, for example.
Because this second method only exchanges the basic transformation quantities such as the moving, rotation and the like of the object among the computers, it is not possible to share among the computers object operations other than the basic object operations such as moving and rotation. In addition, if performance conditions such as drawing performance and CPU performance are not uniform among each of the local sites (computers), errors are introduced in the shared state of the object among the computers.
On the other hand, instead of exchanging the basic transformation quantities such as the moving and rotation of the object among the computers as in the case of the second method, a third method exchanges only input operation events, such as mouse events and keyboard events, among the computers. The mouse events include mouse positions X and Y and upward and downward movements of a button by the mouse. This third method is proposed in a U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,553, for example. According to this third method, the operation itself of an application which loads the object is shared among all of the computers.
Since the third method shares the application among the computers, the amount of programming required is small, and it is possible to build a so-called xe2x80x9cshared communication systemxe2x80x9d which is virtually independent from each application which is to be shared. However, in the case of an application having VisualC++ standard Graphic User Interface (GUI) system, it is a precondition that display conditions match at all of the local sites. The display conditions include window sizes of the applications, positions of menu bars and the like. Therefore, the degree of user freedom is limited by the precondition which is to be satisfied at all of the local sites.
According to the first through third methods described above, there are problems in that the three-dimensional object cannot be shared interactively and smoothly and among the computers by flexibly copying with various operations carried out at each of the local sites, regardless of the uniformity of the performance conditions and the display conditions at each of the local sites. In addition, when the three-dimensional object is to be shared in response to the mouse events, it is a precondition that the window sizes and the positions of the menu bars of the applications match at each of the local sites, and there is also a problem in that the degree of user freedom is limited and the user cannot freely change the display conditions such as the window sizes and menu bar positions.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a novel and useful three-dimensional object shared processing method and storage medium, in which the problems described above are eliminated.
Another and more specific object of the present invention to provide a three-dimensional object shared processing method and a storage medium, which can share a three-dimensional object interactively and smoothly among computers by flexibly copying with various operations carried out at each of local sites, in a state where display conditions such as window sizes and menu bar positions may be set arbitrarily at each of the local sites.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a three-dimensional object shared processing method for sharing data of a three-dimensional object among a plurality of computer systems which are coupled via a network, comprising a step of updating the data of the three-dimensional object stored at each of the computer systems so that the data match, based on an operation command and change information, where the operation command is related to an operation with respect to the three-dimensional object carried out at each of the computer systems, and the change information indicates a change of the three-dimensional object caused by the operation carried out with respect to the three-dimensional object and includes a number of a selected part of the three-dimensional object and a position coordinate of the selected part. According to the three-dimensional object shared processing method of the present invention, it is possible to share a three-dimensional object interactively and smoothly among computer systems by flexibly copying with various operations carried out at each of local sites, in a state where display conditions such as window sizes and menu bar positions may be set arbitrarily at each of the local sites.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a computer-readable storage medium which stores a program for causing a computer to process data of a three-dimensional object to be shared among a plurality of computer systems which are coupled via a network, comprising means for causing the computer to update the data of the three-dimensional object stored at each of the computer systems so that the data match, based on an operation command and change information, where the operation command is related to an operation with respect to the three-dimensional object carried out at each of the computer systems, and the change information indicates a change of the three-dimensional object caused by the operation carried out with respect:to the three-dimensional object and includes a number of a selected part of the three-dimensional object and a position coordinate of the selected part. According to the computer-readable storage medium of the present invention, it is possible to share a three-dimensional object interactively and smoothly among computer systems by flexibly copying with various operations carried out at each of local sites, in a state where display conditions such as window sizes and menu bar positions may be set arbitrarily at each of the local sites.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.